PUBLIC INTEREST * Jan. 25, 2008 .LOS ANGELES - When artist Chris Moreno and her husband, California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, became the primary caretakers of a disabled niece, they learned how difficult it can be to navigate the legal and social systems that hold the key to her well-being. The 12-year-old girl is autistic and mentally retarded and suffers from seizures. For seven years, the couple has fought to obtain the services to which she is entitled. "We had to hire a lawyer to defend her educational rights," Chris Moreno said. "I have a college degree. I'm a college professor. I understand what's happening most of the time, but not in that world. That world is a very foreign world." The Morenos' niece has been out of school for months. "Los Angeles Unified held a secret Individualized Education Assessment meeting and changed her school and canceled all her services," Chris Moreno said. "They took care of it as a budget item. They never met her. They didn't know what her needs are." Even with the help of a lawyer who specializes in these issues, Moreno has been struggling. She said she has had to fight to get vital speech therapy for her niece, who has very limited language skills. Transportation is a continuing problem because the bus driver is not allowed to carry the girl's emergency medication for a life threatening allergy, Moreno said. "She has myself and my husband as her advocates, and it's still so grueling a process," she said. These experiences inspired Moreno to paint a mural and donate it to the Glendale offices of Neighborhood Legal Services, an organization providing civil legal assistance to people with far fewer resources than the Morenos have. The mural, called "Trubbles," was unveiled last week. It depicts Moreno's impression of what it must be like for poor people to be trapped in an overwhelming system and what it takes for legal-aid lawyers to help them through that system. "She was trying to show what legal-services lawyers are able to do with shrinking resources," said Neighborhood Legal Services Executive Director Neal Dudovitz, who was taken with Moreno's work when he saw one of her paintings in her husband's chambers. "We do what it takes to get people through the system, and it takes many different things. "However difficult it is for people like the Morenos, it's 100 times harder if you're a poor person barely able to pay your phone bill and have language barriers. It's virtually impossible." In the mural, people are shown floating inside bubbles, trapped, as others climb ladders and use whimsical contraptions to help them escape. "If you're floating away on a bubble, you can't continue your life," Moreno said. "I also tried to depict how people in organizations like Neighborhood Legal Services use their imagination to help people. They're using all kinds of imaginative ways to rescue people in that painting." Moreno said she wanted the mural to feel hopeful. But she also wanted to convey the desperation of people trying to advocate for themselves in a system that's stacked against them. "We believe people should have access to justice, but without a lawyer, that just can't be true," she said. "People who have no access to justice have no voice. They don't understand the process. They don't know what they're supposed to do. "They don't know how to defend themselves. But if there are places like Neighborhood Legal Services, I think they have a fair shot." |